Austin Jackson leads Indians in 6-3 win over Orioles

Three out of four.

While it wasn’t entirely pretty, the Indians got the job done Thursday night, defeating the Orioles 6-3 to take three out of four from the O’s in Baltimore. A job well done I say. With the win, the Tribe improves to 39-32 on the year.

Here’s the cliff notes on the victory:

Austin Jackson had himself a game. The veteran outfielder went 3-5 with three RBI. Jackson laced a Wade Miley full-count fastball in the second inning to the gap in right-center, scoring Carlos Santana. Jackson hustled around for a triple and would later score on a Yan Gomes single. In the third, Jackson singled to left on another Miley full-count fastball to bring home Jose Ramirez and Edwin Encarnacion. Jackson is now hitting .301 with an .898 OPS over 107 plate appearances. Count me plenty surprised. I thought Jackson was a “blah” signing at best this offseason, and I hope he keeps proving me wrong.

The Tribe finished with 13 hits; as Francisco Lindor, Encarnacion, and Santana each had two hits. Erik Gonzalez smashed a home run in the sixth inning, showcasing that high leg kick and quick wrists on a 87 mph slider. It was Gonzalez’s second home run of the year. A quick side note on the home run, Mr. Gonzalez is the anti-Puig, as he hustles around the bases. Pretty cool.

Pitching-wise, well Mike Clevinger was not very good. His command was god-awful and barely made it out of the first few innings without giving up a ton of runs. However, he did work through his issues, so yeah, and a final line of two earned runs over five innings of work for the stuff he had is plenty fortunate.

The Tribe’s bullpen was solid again, with only Andrew Miller giving up a run (in the ninth). It was a bit odd to see Miller in the game with a four-run lead, especially with the whole save-his-arm thing, but Tito doesn’t like to warmup his stud relievers and then not bring them on, so Miller went out and finished her up. He did use 29 pitches to get through the ninth, so I would guess he won’t pitch tomorrow against the Twins.

Speaking of tomorrow night, it’s Trevor Bauer’s turn, and he’ll face off against Minnesota’s Adalberto Mejia (great name). First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM ET. Let’s Go Tribe!